Team Building

I was out of the office yesterday on our 'annual' team building day. This is the second year of it, and unlike last years' session this one was held at a local country park with ponds, wildlife and lots of green space even better a couple of the sessions allowed us to go outside and 'play' (Constructively of course).

Well after a slow start, we moved outside to the first of the physical tasks (not too demanding) just to put a series of planks together to form a shape as on the diagram provided to us. Our team lost ;-( and not just by a bit of time but by a whole heap of time (something like a minute longer than the other team - never mind) however, we were smiling to the end as we stated that ours was quality controlled and checked before dispatch.. not certain how convincing that argument holds but not a bad word was said about the task or any of the members of the team so even in adversity we held our own which was really good as apparently the facilitator had known other groups to have kicked the planks in disgust.

The second physical task was to walk on planks (ski style) from one end of the course to the other, we succeeded in winning the first round with a slow but sure style (we only cheated twice) as the other two teams fell off and having been noticed were sent back to the beginning. Once again we attempted but lost by quite a big margin, note to employers we are definitely a quality team only going for premium performance not speed) and eventually we were dismissed.

We were then asked to commit industrial espionage against the other two teams (namely putting a plank in front of them they had to get over) this was fascinating due to the responses of the team who when faced with this obstacle became quite vocal.. I had to admit to laughing so hard that I let go of my plank end and nearly tripped over my own two feet. It all ended with lots of fun and laughter and no recriminations.; perhaps we are more mature than we sometimes give ourselves credit for.

The day was a good mix of physical and class activities and I think next year might even be better.

I do wish we had some of the nice features that the country park did, namely a lake and some wildlife as even here it can be stressful and I found it very relaxing I just wished I could have taken some time out to myself to read some of my book.